| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/11401/76601 | |
| dc.description.sponsorship | This work is sponsored by the Stony Brook University Graduate School in compliance with the requirements for completion of degree. | en_US |
| dc.format | Monograph | |
| dc.format.medium | Electronic Resource | en_US |
| dc.language.iso | en_US | |
| dc.publisher | The Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY. | |
| dc.type | Dissertation | |
| dcterms.abstract | My dissertation argues that participatory democracy is born out of a unique mode of aesthetic performance. This thesis is based on recent French and Italian philosophy concerning democracy, inequality, and political representation. My point of departure, however, is Plato's genealogy of democracy in Book 3 of the Laws, where Plato explains that participatory democracy in Athens was a result of a prior revolution in the city's theater. This work is an extension of Plato's genealogy into the kind of poetry and theater and philosophy that Plato says was responsible for a revolution that brought political and economic equality to Athens. The first question that my dissertation raises is that of Plato's Laws: What gave birth to direct democracy in Athens? When did sovereignty end and democracy begin? And if this took place in Athens' theater, as Plato says it did, how was democracy first performed? How was it choreographed as if it were a dramatic action on the stage in the theater? The second question that I consider is less genealogical and more fundamentally philosophical: What was behind Plato and Aristotle's attempt to censor this kind of art specifically? Following the recent work of Foucault, Rancière, and Agamben on ancient Greek political philosophy and democracy, I argue that the pillar and cornerstone of 4th Century Greek philosophy, proper political speech or logos, was not, as many have argued, an equalizer that allowed for equal and rational speakers; it was a direct confrontation with isegoria or the equality of speech, and it amounted to the invention of sovereignty. I show that as logos or exceptional speech was instituted as proper forms of political participation, a second class of voices were excluded, and even invented, by the same stroke. In short, I show that sovereignty was invented through a form of exclusion in language. Chapter One of this study is an extensive presentation of the origins of the kind of theater and poetry that led to the initial democratic revolution in Athens. Chapter Two shows how this particular performativity was prohibited in the political works of Plato and Aristotle for the sake of a fundamental turn toward sovereignty and political representation. Finally, Chapter Three of this work discusses the extensive reconsideration of this kind of performativity in Jacques Derrida's reading of Rousseau's Essay on the Origin of Languages in Of Grammatology, and, more generally, in the democratic turn in French philosophy prior to the events of May '68. | |
| dcterms.abstract | My dissertation argues that participatory democracy is born out of a unique mode of aesthetic performance. This thesis is based on recent French and Italian philosophy concerning democracy, inequality, and political representation. My point of departure, however, is Plato's genealogy of democracy in Book 3 of the Laws, where Plato explains that participatory democracy in Athens was a result of a prior revolution in the city's theater. This work is an extension of Plato's genealogy into the kind of poetry and theater and philosophy that Plato says was responsible for a revolution that brought political and economic equality to Athens. The first question that my dissertation raises is that of Plato's Laws: What gave birth to direct democracy in Athens? When did sovereignty end and democracy begin? And if this took place in Athens' theater, as Plato says it did, how was democracy first performed? How was it choreographed as if it were a dramatic action on the stage in the theater? The second question that I consider is less genealogical and more fundamentally philosophical: What was behind Plato and Aristotle's attempt to censor this kind of art specifically? Following the recent work of Foucault, Rancière, and Agamben on ancient Greek political philosophy and democracy, I argue that the pillar and cornerstone of 4th Century Greek philosophy, proper political speech or logos, was not, as many have argued, an equalizer that allowed for equal and rational speakers; it was a direct confrontation with isegoria or the equality of speech, and it amounted to the invention of sovereignty. I show that as logos or exceptional speech was instituted as proper forms of political participation, a second class of voices were excluded, and even invented, by the same stroke. In short, I show that sovereignty was invented through a form of exclusion in language. Chapter One of this study is an extensive presentation of the origins of the kind of theater and poetry that led to the initial democratic revolution in Athens. Chapter Two shows how this particular performativity was prohibited in the political works of Plato and Aristotle for the sake of a fundamental turn toward sovereignty and political representation. Finally, Chapter Three of this work discusses the extensive reconsideration of this kind of performativity in Jacques Derrida's reading of Rousseau's Essay on the Origin of Languages in Of Grammatology, and, more generally, in the democratic turn in French philosophy prior to the events of May '68. | |
| dcterms.available | 2017-09-20T16:50:47Z | |
| dcterms.contributor | O'Byrne, Anne | en_US |
| dcterms.contributor | Casey, Edward S | en_US |
| dcterms.contributor | Harvey, Robert | en_US |
| dcterms.contributor | Naas, Michael. | en_US |
| dcterms.creator | Holloway, Travis Wade | |
| dcterms.dateAccepted | 2017-09-20T16:50:47Z | |
| dcterms.dateSubmitted | 2017-09-20T16:50:47Z | |
| dcterms.description | Department of Philosophy | en_US |
| dcterms.extent | 199 pg. | en_US |
| dcterms.format | Application/PDF | en_US |
| dcterms.format | Monograph | |
| dcterms.identifier | http://hdl.handle.net/11401/76601 | |
| dcterms.issued | 2014-12-01 | |
| dcterms.language | en_US | |
| dcterms.provenance | Made available in DSpace on 2017-09-20T16:50:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1
Holloway_grad.sunysb_0771E_12210.pdf: 1485303 bytes, checksum: d7718c6ce692f88b9e59659d8892663e (MD5)
Previous issue date: 1 | en |
| dcterms.publisher | The Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY. | |
| dcterms.subject | Philosophy -- Performing arts -- Comparative literature | |
| dcterms.subject | Democracy, Foucault, Performance, Polyphony, Rancière, Voice | |
| dcterms.subject | Democracy, Foucault, Performance, Polyphony, Rancière, Voice | |
| dcterms.title | How to Perform a Democracy: A Genealogy of the Bare Voice | |
| dcterms.type | Dissertation | |
